Leader of Camden Tories to stand for Parliament

IT already seems so long ago but back in the autumn, if you had to guess which of Camden’s political group leaders would be on the ballot papers at May’s general election, chances are you would more likely than not have guessed at Labour’s Sarah Hayward, as her supporters talked up her chances of pipping Sir Keir Starmer to the selection in Holborn and St Pancras. But come polling day, it’s Conservative Claire-Louise Leyland will be on the slate after being chosen by the party today to stand in Northern Ireland – in the Sinn Fein stronghold of West Tyrone to be precise.

Although clearly one which will be marked ‘unwinnable’ in the head office files, she has been rattracted by the chance to spread the party’s message across the Irish Sea to a place where the Tories have not previously stood up a candidate. We await reports of her door-knocking experiences as she takes on SF’s settled MP Paul Doherty.